Greetings-
My wife and I are due to have our first child in February. There is a race in Hawaii (5 hour flight) that I’d like to do 3 months after our child is born.
I know that my training regimen is going to be about zero, but I’m wondering if any of you parents have any comments on:
Thanks for any input!
RD
Is it safe? Sure. But you will be holding the baby the whole time, no seats for infants. Five hours is a long time to have a baby in your lap!
On the other hand, my memory of 3 month olds is they sleep most of the time…
Babies under a year are pretty damn “portable”. They sleep most of the time, and aren’t exactly highly locomotive. Flying shouldn’t be a problem either, although you might want to either get a seat for the carrier or somehow ensure that you’ll get a front row / wall seat so you can put the carrier down.
I’d highly recommend that you DO race, as from years 2-5 you won’t have much time (or energy) at all to train, and travelling with kids (esp aged 2-3) can be QUITE challenging.
We flew to HI many times with my daughter before she was 2 to visit relatives. Just tell them you’re bring a small infant and they might even put you in the row that has little basinettes (you know, where the child sleeps).
We even went several times when I did that race in Kona in May. Though I wish I could attribute my poor performances to lack of sleep.
Here is another way to look at it.
How many people are gonna be on that flight?
I can gaurentee that you are gonna be the most unpopular person on that plane. People are always all freaked out on a plane to begin with, just look at how shitty most people treat the Flight Attendants. Its not generally because they are assholes (though some of them may be), it is because they are in an unfamiliar and very frightening environment. If the infant cries the entire 5 hours i’m pretty sure everyone on your half of the plane is gonna wanna tear your childs’ head off along with yours, but guess what, they won’t. They will take it out on the flight attendant. A friend of mine once has an infant throw up on her on a bus, it was absolutely horrible. I don’t really know where i’m going with this, but be considerate and think about the others that might be involved. For all i know babies that small can’t even cry, but my guess is that they can.
Here is another way to look at it.
How many people are gonna be on that flight?
I can gaurentee that you are gonna be the most unpopular person on that plane. People are always all freaked out on a plane to begin with, just look at how shitty most people treat the Flight Attendants. Its not generally because they are assholes (though some of them may be), it is because they are in an unfamiliar and very frightening environment. If the infant cries the entire 5 hours i’m pretty sure everyone on your half of the plane is gonna wanna tear your childs’ head off along with yours, but guess what, they won’t. They will take it out on the flight attendant. A friend of mine once has an infant throw up on her on a bus, it was absolutely horrible. I don’t really know where i’m going with this, but be considerate and think about the others that might be involved. For all i know babies that small can’t even cry, but my guess is that they can.
I have no idea what your point is. Surely it’s not “don’t travel with a baby because it might annoy someone”. Regarding traveling with a baby, do it as often as you can before they learn to walk, because things change dramatically once they’re mobile. I traveled to Europe twice (10 hours +/-) with infants and other than having to have all the baby accoutrements it wasn’t that difficult. Most airlines have bassinets and seat you by the bulkhead where the baby mostly lies quietly in the bassinet on the floor or attached to the bulkhead. Oh… and you don’t get shunned by everyone on the plane… as a matter of fact, everyone wants to help you.
It can be done but it’ll either be semi smooth at best or totally the opposite.
If at all possible you might consider taking the wife and leaving the kid at home with grandparents. That’s what we always did. It simplifies everything. And it’s not like at that age they’ll remember their trip to Hawaii. Fortunately my kid’s grandparents on either side always welcomed the opportunity.
You can consider the best and worst case scenerios:
Best case: the baby will sleep on the plane and be calm and portable for most of the trip. The baby will be easy and you and your wife can focus on the trip and tri with the baby in tow.
Worst Case: The baby will scream for the entire flight. The baby will get sick and have a 104 degree temp for most of the trip. Your wife can deal with the baby and doctors while you do the tri, but no one will get much sleep.
I have had both of the above happen when my children were that age (although the trips did not include a tri, they did include 5-plus hour plane flights, including U.S. Coast to Coast and U.S. to Europe). On most travels, the Best case scenerio prevailed.
this is somewhat off topic, but my parents first took me on a flight when I was a year old. I was a hyperactive kid. mom gave me a sleeping tablet, ground up.
however, it did not work, and I was all over everyone on the plane. when we landed, I was out like a light.
mom was a stewardess, and she once drugged a rather nasty in-flight supervisor. she collected sleeping tablets, put them into his drink, and gave it to the supervisor. his last words before losing consciousness were (to another stewardess): “There’s two of you, there’s two of you!”, to which the reply was, “Only one, only one!”
Don’t reproduce.
And I vote you the most unpopular person on this forum. Look at how shitty you treat infants.
The person asked a simple question. I noticed that everyone who was posting was a parent themselves. I decided to give my opinion. I made it very clear that my point was to think about everyone involved (and if you read closely you could even say i was defending flight attendants) and not just think about yourself. Man i can’t remember the last time i got scolded for telling someone to consider others when they make a decision. In fact, maybe that is the problem with the world today. Now we scold others for being considerate, i guess you can call me old fashioned…
The person asked a simple question. I noticed that everyone who was posting was a parent themselves. I decided to give my opinion. I made it very clear that my point was to think about everyone involved (and if you read closely you could even say i was defending flight attendants) and not just think about yourself. Man i can’t remember the last time i got scolded for telling someone to consider others when they make a decision. In fact, maybe that is the problem with the world today. Now we scold others for being considerate, i guess you can call me old fashioned…
How old are you?
How old are you?
I’ll give you my bio so you can all have some (more) ammunition to flame me.
25/M
Single
Mechanical Engineer
Advenure Racer and Novice Triathlete
Athletic Background: soccer, T&F, rugby.
Enjoys morning swims and evening runs.
Well, I second what Mac McE said, and definitely don’t hook up with weiwentg’s mom!
Here are 2 questions that may help you answer your question: Are you mostly concerned about the effects of the flight on you, your wife, your race, etc? If so, go. You’ll handle it fine. Or are you mostly concerned about the effects of the flight your child? If so, try not to take the child on the plane (don’t go or get someone to take care of him/her for you at home?)
From many, many years of personal experience (I work in the field), long distance airline flying is not good at all for such a small child. Lots of people do it, I know. But I can tell you that the radiation risk from 5 hrs at 35,000 to 40,000 ft. on young, rapidly reproducing cells is not something I would risk on my child if I could help it. Plus the vast pressure changes wreaking havoc on the child’s inner ear, as well as the high noise level, extremely dry air, various infectious agents from re-circulated air, and constant jostling over 5 hours of being held in your lap can’t add to experiance for your child. Avoid it at all costs if you can…
Greg, can you recommend a good plastic bubble to preserve my children in?
Greg, can you recommend a good plastic bubble to preserve my children in?
LOL!
I can’t imagine planes are any noisier, more radiation-laden, louder, dryer, more infectious, less pressure-stable or more cramped than the DC 8’s and 707’s (the same width as 737’s!!!) that my parents and my sister and I took in the 60’s and 70’s back and forth to Europe for 10-12 hours at a stretch.
Go, go, go. The vast majority of babies travel very well, especially at that age. My husband and I have travelled all over the US and Europe with our two kids since they were born (they’re now 3 and 6). Some flights are good, some not so good; all worth it.
One important caveat: Retain flexibility. If your kid is colicky or otherwise difficult, you and/or your wife may decide that travelling is too much trouble. Go with your gut at the time.
Definitely go. Flying with a baby is much easier than with a hyper 2 year old. We did a 26 hour trip (London-Aust) with our 3 month old, and she slept or fed most of the way. Babies are pretty portable. If you make sure your child is feeding during take off and landing, their sucking seems to help keep their ear pressure ok. Just request a bassinet for your flight.
LOL! Thanks for enlightening me, man! After reading your impressive pun, I now take my infant flying as often as possible, especially on long-ass red-eye flights (you don’t want them kids to have too much healthy, undisrupted sleep–I mean you don’t want them to get the idea that they are living in a ‘plastic bubble’ or something). And to further “toughen them up” for adult life, when I do travel, I run my infant through the carry-on baggage x-ray machine at least a couple of times, just because I can. The TSA folks think its real funny.
But the best benefit of flying with my child is the long break I get from training: on almost every flight the damn rat gets sick (immature immune system and all) which then means a couple of days later I get sick which means I get a week or two of laying on the couch blowing snot out of my nose. Wow, what a great way to skip out on some races and get a long rest! Why didn’t I think of that before?!